Best digital camera's under $500 - your opinion..

[Transition]

I'm prepared to spend $500.00 on a digital camera - but i'd like to know what everyone thinks is the best available camera and why.

Let's hear it fella's.....

 

[Jen]

Sony Mavica........


thats what we use here..........


Jen

 

[Transition]

<< Sony Mavica........


thats what we use here..........


Jen >>



Is there a specific reason why?

Edit: And which Mavica in specific? There are about 6 different models of the Mavica.

 

[John]

go here

 

[Transition]

10 Gazillion reviews - where does a person start?

 

[Pabster]

You can select a bunch of different models and compare them, it's pretty straightforward. Read the user reviews and various site reviews.

I haven't made a final decision yet either, but a Kodak of some nature seems about right.

 

[John]

I can't wait till I get my Sony CD1000!!

 

[flywheel]

I've done a lot of research on this...and it seems to me that either the Olympus 3040 or the Kodak 3900 are about the best cameras in that price range if you want a 3.1 megapixel. I've read a lot of good things about Canon's new G2, I think is the model...but it's pretty spendy. The Kodak is kind of a point and shoot... I wish they were still making the 4800 instead of all these easyshare's but the do make a good camera.

 

[NakaNaka]

Cannon S110 !!!

 

[pm]

The Canon S110. It's very small (fits easily in a shirt pocket with room to spare), takes pretty good pictures (color is good, focus is pretty good, flash is ok), the zoom is not so great (it's only 2x and seems to jump rather than zoom in/out smoothly), it has decent resolution (2.1MP is good enough for 4x6's as far as I'm concerned and 5x7's still look good), it has a lithium-ion battery that lasts quite a while (especially if you aren't using the flash and you turn off the display), and takes CompactFlash (my favorite of the various memory type). I like the software it comes with too. At ~$375 online, it's well under $500.

The single biggest selling point for the S110 is the small size. It's really small and as such I tend to take it all over the place. Even in it's case, I can fit it in a jacket pocket and not notice it at all. If the size of the camera doesn't matter then there are better cameras out there for the price, but I know that I use mine a lot more than my friend uses his Canon G1 simply because I don't even notice that I have it when we go out.

Eventually I'll upgrade my S110 to something like an S40 (a friend has an S40 and I'm pretty impressed) when they drop below $500 , but for now, I'm very happy with the size and quality of the S110.


My opinion is based on using several other (more expensive, >$500) cameras:

My father has a Sony DSC-P5 (~$600). I have taken about 100 photos with it. The camera is quite a bit bigger than my S110, but it seems to take slightly better pictures: the colors seem more vibrant than the S110, while the focus doesn't seem quite as good. The flash appears to be brighter to me. His has a 3.3MP resolution but to be honest, I could barely tell the difference when I printed out 4x6's with it (HP P1000) and compared it to my 2.1MP. The battery seems better than mine, but it takes Sony's memory stick which seems to be quite a bit more expensive (like 300%) than my CF cards and requires more costly adapters to use.

A friend has a G1 which I am much more impressed with. The pictures are beautiful, the flash is great, the colors and focus are great. My only problem with the G1 was the price, and I like the small size of the S110.

And another friend has an S40 which is probably going to be my next camera. I have taken about 30 pictures with it and was completely impressed with everything about it but the price.

 

[Om]

Going to have to agree on the Olympus 3040. Great fast lens and zero distortion. A lot of lens on digital cameras have imperfections in then, giving a fisheye on some and other problems around the edges of shots. After a few camera buys and returns, and reading endless reviews I settled on the Olympus. Simply put it's amazing. You do have to tweak it to make it give the best possible pics. It has a point and shoot menu to get you started but if you are spending $500.00 for a camera you will want to really get into it after a short into to it and learn to take great pictures, which this camera lets you do endlessly. I also think the Fuji's take great pictures, even their point and shot cameras, not as true to life but the colors are about the best I've seen for the price. But you'll be happy with the Olympus for many many years to come I believe.

 

[pm]

Isn't the 3040 more than $500? I thought it ran somewhere in the $600 range.

 

[scoobydooby]

I've got an Olypus 2100 Ultra Zoom and it rocks! I paid about $500 for it this summer and love it. It has lots of great features like a 10x zoom, all kinds of manual controls and good picture quality. It's only a 2 mega pixel but it's still good quality. Just a suggestion.
Scoob

 

[squirrelman]

I was just going to suggest the same as scoobydooby. I got one for $499 at Compusa actually just a few weeks ago. Its a great camera, not only is it a 10x zoom its a 10x stabilized zoom which makes it so you can take better pictures with the full zoom lens. Its a great one, I would highly suggest checking it out.

 

[vegetation]

I've got a Nikon 950 and love the swivel mount lens. The new 995 has that feature too. I'll never go back to using a non-swivel mount camera! It's an amazing feature for snipping perfect shots of you and your significant other face-to-face when travelling. Picture quality is simply the best, albeit the flash is a bit too bright -- supposedly fixed with the 995 pop-up flash model. Wish it had more than 3x zoom but its adequate enough.

I also have the Canon S110 but don't really like it much -- sure it's small but it's too thick and heavy to put in a pocket really, unless you mean the pocket of a huge jacket. The limiting 2x zoom and slow shutter time makes the camera not so pleasant to use. Also has a greenish/blue tint on some indoor shots.

 

[MasterHoss]

I would recommend an Olympus...I dislike the Sony cameras just because you have to shell out at least $600 to get a decent one with that damn Carl Zeiss lens on it...it looks pretty nice but you can get a better camera in an Olympus or Canon. I forget the models but just look at their 3.3Mpixel camera. The Nikon CoolPix cameras are nice but I had to tweak around with the settings for both the 775 and the 995 to yield bright pictures.